We’re not getting anything to compare with what’s hitting over on the east coast, but it’s still getting ridiculous! It’s supposed to stay cold, and there are supposed to be more storms coming later in the week. Enough already!
The last of the drywall went up this week, all the piles of scraps are gone and things are moving along 
Toby was having a blast in the snow this morning – I tried playing with the “Sports” setting on the camera, and got some decent shots … and then there were several that were just part of a high speed dog. There’s still a learning curve happening there 
As you can see, we got some snow – about 3 inches. When we went north to St. Louis today, it was obvious that most of this storm stayed to the south. Now we’re waiting to see what the next one (Sunday-into-Monday) will do. We’ve got milk, bread, pet food, plenty of knitting and nowhere in particular to go, so we may just sit it out.
When Toby and I took our late walk last night, there were 2 great horned owls “chatting” back and forth (check out the audio here – it sure got Amber’s attention). The Missouri Conservation Commission’s Natural Events calendar says that they start nesting in early February. My bird guide says they’ll take prey as large as domestic cats and red-tailed hawks, whose nests they sometimes use – wow!
Great horned owl; taken March 2007 at Wild Bird Sanctuary, Fenton, Mo.
I just looked back through some photos from this time last year, and the construction progress is pretty impressive. While we’re still quite a ways from being done, a lot has happened. The exterior is mostly done, the drywall is up except for a few more spots that were waiting for either plumbing or wiring to be completed, and the taping and mudding are coming along nicely. Maybe soon …
January 2009
January 2010; installing light #2.
There has been knitting here, it just seems like it’s gotten buried in a lot of other busy-ness, of both the unbloggable deadline and the construction varieties. This is my latest batch of yarn doodling, all nice yarns, 3 cotton, 1 wool, and 1 wool-cashmere blend (Willow). I mostly like the stitch patterns, though I found the purple one hard to follow. That’s a good thing about swatching—you can figure that out before committing to lots and lots of something you don’t enjoy knitting!
Again, I hope at least some of them will grow up to be sweaters. I just looked back at a previous batch of swatches, and realized that 2 of those 3 did become actual designs
Our visit to Riga was planned to include the large annual craft fair which is held at the Latvian Ethnographic Open Air Museum – the weather cooperated and we were able to see crafts, demonstrations and reconstructions of historic cottages and other buildings from the 16th-19th centuries. I’m sure the kitchen was state-of-the-art for its time, but I’m happy not to have to cook there!
A linen lace doily similar to the one the lady is holding (but unbleached), and a small linen table cloth from the weavers might have followed me home, but I couldn’t figure out how to pack any of the baskets
The new issue of Piecework came recently and I was delighted to see Barbara Plakans’ article about Jetta Uzane* (1924-2007) and her beautiful Latvian mittens. Much of the information in the article plus additional photos can be found at LatviasFriend.
At the 2000 Oft-Timer’s session at Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp, Lizbeth Upitis announced that she was going to take a group to Latvia in June, 2001—several of us just looked at each other and said “Let’s go!”
We had a wonderful trip, with access to mitten and stocking collections in a number of museums because of the contacts Lizbeth had made during research for her book, and also getting to meet with knitters (with the help of Lizbeth and a guide/interpreter).
One of our trips away from Riga, where we stayed much of the time, was to meet Jetta at her home. A collection of her mittens had been displayed in the US, and Lizbeth returned them to her while we were there.
All photos ©2001, E. J. Slayton.
*Rough approximation of the pronunciation is Yet-ta OO-zane; e as in let, short a.
for a very
I expect we’ll have a quiet evening here—so far dinner plans include a couple of steaks and maybe a big pan of scalloped potatoes on the side. The food processor will get a workout, which is much easier for me 
Hope everyone had a great holiday!
It sounds as if we may have a white Christmas. I’ve got mixed feelings about that – I love the way things look with snow on them, but on the other hand we and my Mom are planning to go to Kansas City to spend some time with our daughters and grandkids, and snow can certainly complicate travel!
The holiday decorating is somewhat limited, but here are some of my favorite ones
I’m taking a short break from the blog – hopefully to travel and also try to get the ongoing computer issues cleared up. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!
Joyknits!
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